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Aristotle on Mind and the Science of Nature Lennox, James G. 2009. Aristotle on Mind and the Science of Nature. In M. Rossetto, M. Tsianikas, G. Couvalis and M. Palaktsoglou (Eds.) "Greek Research in Australia: Proceedings of the Eighth Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, Flinders University June 2009". Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek: Adelaide, 1-18. ARISTOTLE ON MIND AND THE SCIENCE OF NaTURE Aristotle on Mind and the Science of Nature James G. Lennox1 On the basis of two premises to which he is committed, it would seem that Aristotle must be a “naturalist” about the investigation of the soul: 1. Natural things have both a material and a formal nature. 2. In the case of living things, their formal nature is their soul. This paper deals with a complication in the above inference. In De partibus animalium I 1, Aristotle insists that the natural scientist should not speak of all soul, since not all of the soul is a nature, though one or more parts of it is (641b8–9). In this paper I argue that this claim is consistent with everything he says in the De anima about the investigation of reason, and is a consequence of his views about the methodological norms of natural science. Aristotle is a naturalist when it comes to those parts of the soul human beings share with other animals, but his views about the mind are much more complicated. 1 For helpful questions and comments I would like to thank participants at the Western On- tario Colloquium in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (The Unity and Immateriality of Soul in Aristotle), October 12–14, 2007, University of Western Ontario, especially Devin Henry, Christopher Shields and Fred Miller and my commentator Mary Louise Gill. Thanks to Dan Garber and Angela Creager for providing the opportunity to present portions of this material at the Program in History of Science Workshop Discovering Life, February 8–9, 2008, Princeton University; to the organizers of the International Society for History of Philosophy of Science ( HOPOS) and to Andrea Falcon, for the invitation to present a talk based on this paper as part of the symposium Aristotle on the Unity and Boundaries of the Science of Nature, June 18, 2008, Uni- versity of British Columbia; to the Colloquium committee, and especially Monte Johnson, for the invitation to present a later version of this material to the UCSD Philosophy Colloquium, February 27, 2009; and finally to the organizers and participants in the TOPOI workshop on Parts of the Soul and Methodology in Aristotle, Humboldt University, Berlin, November 13–14, 2009, especially Klaus Corcilius. Finally, the occasion for this publication was an opportunity to present a talk based on this paper at the Greek Research Conference in Adelaide on July 4, 2009. I would like to thank George Couvalis, Rachel Ankeny and Alan Chalmers for all of their kindness in making that occasion possible. 1 Archived at Flinders University: dspace.flinders.edu.au JAMES G. LENNOX 1. Introduction T aking up a starting point of the inquiry, we say that what is ensouled is dis- tinguished from what is without soul by being alive. But since being alive is spoken of in a variety of ways, we say something is alive if only one of the fol- lowing is present — reason, perception, movement and rest in place, and again the movement involved in nutrition and decay and growth. (De an. II 2 413a20–25) At the beginning of the Meteorology, Aristotle recites an appropriate course of study for an investigator of nature (338b20–339a10) in order to locate the inves- tigation of meteorological phenomena. For my topic today two things are sig- nificant about this recitation: [i] the De anima, the investigation of the soul, is not mentioned, and [ii] the course of investigation of nature is said to culminate in a study of animals and plants. It is often assumed that the investigation of the soul reflected in the De anima is directly implied by the claim that the study of nature is completed when we have concluded our investigation of animals and plants. That is a rash assumption. The lack of mention of an investigation of soul in this recounting of the course of natural inquiry reflects a tension at the heart of Aristotle’s philosophy of nature. 2. Souls and Natures There seems to be an undeniable inference from premises Aristotle clearly and repeat- edly endorses to the conclusion that an animal’s soul constitutes a part, and the most important part, of its nature, in which case it is obvious that it is an object for the natural scientist to study. The premises are: 1. N atural things are natural in virtue of two natures, their form and their matter, and nature as form is more nature that nature as matter (Ph. II 1 193a28–30; II 2 194a12–13; II 8 199a30–32). 2. I n the case of living things, their soul is their form (De an. II 1 412a19–20) F rom which it follows that: 3. The souls of living things are their natures in the sense of their forms. And as we shall see when we turn to PA I 1, Aristotle straightforwardly asserts this conclusion, so we needn’t infer that he believes it. Aristotle is thus, by his own account, a naturalist when it comes to the study of the soul; it is an object for the natural scientist to investigate. As Myles Burnyeat put it in a recent paper on De anima II 5: “His [Aristotle’s] psychology is designed to be 2 Archived at Flinders University: dspace.flinders.edu.au ARISTOTLE ON MIND AND THE SCIENCE OF NaTURE the crowning achievement of his physics.”2 Ah, but with Aristotle, life is never simple. This paper deals with a complication in the above inference. In De anima I 1 (403a27–8) Aristotle tells us that the study of the soul — either of all of it or of the sort being considered (he has been discussing emotions)3 — is within the domain of the natural scientist. In De partibus animalium I 1 he begins with the same disjunctive uncertainty (641a17–18, a23), but concludes that the natural scientist should not speak of all soul, since not all of the soul is a nature, though one or more parts of it is (641 b8–9). These passages raise important questions about the status of a theoretical inves- tigation of the soul. Aristotle discusses only three types of theoretical science: the science of nature, mathematics, and first philosophy. If only part of the soul is to be investigated by the natural scientist, who is to investigate the remaining part or parts?4 And if distinct parts are examined by different theoretical sciences, this appears to call into question the unity of the investigation of soul. Let’s look at the two passages that create this tension. 3. De anima I 1 F amously, the De anima opens with praise for the inquiry into the soul (τῶν περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ἱστοριῶν). Knowledge of beautiful and honorable things can be ranked nor- matively in terms of either their accuracy or the intrinsic value of their objects. On either count, Aristotle tells us, it is with good reason that the inquiry into the soul is placed in the first rank. He claims that such an inquiry contributes greatly to all truth, 2 Burnyeat, 2003:36. Burnyeat cites the opening of Meteorology I 1 in defense of this claim, but, while the study of animals and plants is mentioned at least as the completion of the study of nature there outlined, a study of the soul is not mentioned. Compare: “Aristotle introduces De Anima by suggesting that the study of the soul or psychology is part of the study of nature in general. Indeed, one of the reasons for studying the soul is that it contributes greatly to our understanding of nature. The reason for this is that the soul is like a principle of animals.” (Johansen, Aristotle on the Sense-Organs, Cambridge, 1997:7–8). But notice that saying that the study of soul contributes greatly to understanding nature does not imply that it is part of the study of nature. In fact since Aristotle could simply have said that, the fact that he didn’t suggests that there is an interesting problem in seeing psychology as part of physics. The view finds its way into contemporary philosophy of mind: “In Aristotle’s conception of human beings, ration- ality is integrally part of their animal nature ... What makes this possible is that Aristotle is innocent of the very idea that nature is the realm of law and therefore not the home of meaning” (John McDowell, Mind and World, 109). 3 Aquinas (Pasnau, 1999:17) assumes Aristotle means “ones attached to a body”; but it seems almost trivial, given Aristotle’s starting position, to say that those aspects of the soul attached to the body are in the domain of the natural scientist. By “of such a sort” I suppose he means the sort just discussed, any that are relevantly like the pathê, properly defined only by referring both to material changes undergone and a psychological state characterized teleologically — e.g. boiling of the blood due to a desire for revenge. 4 Philoponus (see CAG 15 [in De Anima], 10, 10–27, 25, 9–17, 55, 8–14) wildly over-interprets the PA I 1 passage to be assigning the study of the intellect to first philosophy. Had it done so, my task here would be easier. 3 Archived at Flinders University: dspace.flinders.edu.au JAMES G.
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